The Bird Man
by SenatorBonteri
Summary: Lux Bonteri meets the Penguin. Sort of.


A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, Rebel Warlord Lux Bonteri had recently taken one of Mechi's relatives, namely Hiroka, under his wing as a second Butleress in his castle home on Rhen Var. This made Lillia Fortuna's job a little easier. Now, Mechi Daisuke, Lux's sibling by choice, didn't exactly get along well with Hiroka. One day, shortly after the battle of Marridun, Mechi, bored as always, turns up at her bestie's house. The person at the door wasn't who she expected. "Hiroka?!"

The white haired vixen smiled wide "Good morning dearie! Are you here for personal business or do you have an appointment?"

Lux came to the door and said, "Step aside, Roka. I know that voice." He waved and said, "Hello, Mechi."

"Roka?! I... but... she..." Mechi stammered for a moment before yelling. "AM I IN A NIGHTMARE?!"

Hiroka laughed and flipped her hair back. "No silly. I got a new job!"

Lux walked outside and said patted Mechi's back. "Chill. All I did was give her a new job and a place to stay." He then whispered into her ear, "I was a little reluctant. But Lillia was giving me a disapproving look. So, there's that."

"O-oh...alright um...ok." The little red head stepped in, avoiding bumping into Hiroka before promptly... going to lay on the carpet. Lux followed her back inside.

The taller of the two women looked down at the other. "You know, there are couches...and chairs." Mechi reached out to smack Hiroka really hard on the leg causing Hiroka to recoil. "BRAT!" Lux's eyes widened a little. He didn't say anything yet though. Tyrion, who was watching from a distance, gave a droid chuckle.

"I'll go make some tea shall I?" Hiroka suggested. Lux gave a nod.

Lux's new butler hmphed and walked off, leaving Mechi still laying on the floor. "Why her though?! She's nasty!"

"Lillia didn't think so... and I'll give her credit she can really play nice when she wants to." Lux rubbed the back of his head.

"Luxie, you've gone too soft!" Mechi replied. Then His little red headed friend suddenly shuffled over to very gently headbutt his chest with a groan. "Why'd it have to be Hirokaaaaaaaaaa?" She was incredibly whiny in her question.

Suddenly, he heard something coming out off hyperspace in orbit of the planet. "Hold that thought. It seems there's someone or something here." He walked towards the front door.

Her ears perked up to listen intently. "Should we go check or wait for them to find us?"

Lux paused. "Maybe you should go first. Being a spy and all."

Nodding, Mechi gave him a quick sisterly kiss on the cheek as she occasionally would, and slipped out the front door to the nearest cover. She pulled up the hood of her jacket to hide her brilliant hair and glanced out to look for the thing or ship that made the sound. She would have seen it flying over the castle and disappearing into the horizon. Whatever business this ship and its crew had wasn't with Bonteri. Still. You had to wonder what was up. The ship itself looked like a large freighter. I could have been pirates, smugglers, a gang, or anybody. Mechi took off running after the thing, chasing this was better than being stuck in a house with Hiroka. She teleporting closer when she could, hoping she'd eventually catch up. It stopped over the ruins of another castle. One that looked spookier and more foreboding than the one Lux had chosen. "Ooooohooohoo" she quietly remarked to herself. Mechi crept from cover to cover before stopping to watch who got out.

The ship made it's landing behind the castle walls. If Mechi were able to get past the walls, which she probably was, she could watch the crew unload. The hatch opened up. The first one to step out was an overweight bird man that was of a species once native to Rishi. This individual had black and white feathers and a yellow beak and feet. Its claws weren't very flexible from the look of them. Its feathers looked a little ragged on the clawed wings. He held a machine gun in one wing and a jetpack on his back. He had a crazed look in his eyes that said he was probably a deranged criminal. He wore a bow tie and some purple trousers too. "Quack!" He motioned for the others inside the ship to come out.

And come out they did. They were a mix of Talz aliens and warmly dressed humans with weapons. These were probably what was left of a gang that was looking for a place to hide. "Some spot this is, Louis. We'd better hope nobody else is here. Because it's the only upside I can see."

"Quack! Watch your mouth, you fair weather follower of mine. You can be replaced, you know." He fiddled with his gun. The guy who spoke up shut up real quick. "Yeah. That's what I thought." The bird man's voice was gnarly and rather mean... as was his personality. Mechi watched in horrified curiosity at the landing crew, that bird thing was giving her the willies, but she wasn't about to leave. Carefully and quietly she crept closer still to listen better.

"Why here, though?" Another goon asked.

Louis, as the bird man was called, replied, "First of all, it's the last place the empire... or the remaining Jedi, would think to look for us." His goons and henchman began setting up shop, so to speak. "Second of all, this place may be frozen, but its resources are hard to find in other places."

"But with so few of us to mine and make use of them... look. We're a gang. Not an army."

"We'll get up and running soon enough." With that, he gunned down his doubting Thomas. "All of us but you, that is." He turned around and squawked again. "Quack! Get to work, everyone."

Wide eyed, Mechi melted into the shadows to move around the base. She reformed in a darkened hallway and started to take a look around. "What a whack job... or would it be quack?" Mechi made herself laugh. The place itself was spooky and old enough to be falling apart. She thought she heard a ghostly wail, but it was in reality just the wind blowing through the hallways. "It's cold...and gross." excited to be exploring alone she didn't bother to alert anyone just yet, instead she took pictures of all the creepy stuff. "Woooow, wish I had found this place sooner, would've lived here."

Lux, meanwhile, patiently waited for his red haired bestie to make a report. Eventually, he decided to comm her. "Have you found anything out yet?" He said in a whisper over the comlink.

On the other end, Mechi had found a broken wall to duck behind. "Did you know there were bird people!?" She answered his question with a question. "Giant trigger happy bird people!"

"Um... I know of a species from Rishi from doing my research on the Old Republic. Why?" He asked as he cocked an eyebrow.

"Cuz there's one moving in with his gang in that like... giant castle past yours? He said something about the Jedi and the empire. He shot a guy. With his little bird hands..." She shuffled back closer to the smashed wall in case anyone was patrolling.

"Sounds like he's a crime boss looking for a hideout or something. Do you think I should send some Jedi in, speaking of which? I don't think I need to be next door neighbors with this guy. Especially not when I just set up my own mining operation on this planet a few days ago." Lux did, in fact, have some droids and men mining one of this planet's resources for the wars to come.

"I could just set it on fire when I leave... or trick them into thinking I'm a ghost so they leave. Either way..." she shrugged a shoulder and popped her head u from her hiding spot.

That was when she saw a goon staring right at her. The guy turned, ran, and cried out, "BOSS! WE HAVE COMPANY!"

Louis heard the call from where he was and said, "This is too soon." He counted the thugs he had with him and decided they wouldn't be enough should their company turn out to be a force user.

Mechi swore loudly, hung up and ran to try and tackle the guy "No, no, no, shut up! I'm a ghost! Shhhhh!"

He saw Mechi and said, "Quack! What are you running from, you cowardly cretin? It's only a little red haired girl with a Nexu print dress and a fur coat." He aimed his gun at her, set it to stun, and shot her in the forehead. "And when she wakes up, we can find out who she is… and what she's doing here." The little spy hit the ground hard with a sort of skid. Her comlink slid under the nearby furnishing. The goons bound her hands and feet and set her in a corner with a guard.

Lux was still in his own castle. "Mechi? Mechi?"

When she finally snapped out of it, she was groggy and very mad. Swearing at everyone in the immediate vicinity and issuing threats. If looks could kill, they would all be dead. Louis noticed when she woke up. "Quack! Who are you and why are you here, you red headed rascal?" He asked her with a bit of a scowl himself.

"That's none of your kriffin business, bird face!" She did her best to kick him.

"I wouldn't talk back if I were you. Not when I'm the one holding the gun." He pointed it at her.

Mechi rolled her eyes. "So do you poop on newspapers or do you just go wherever you want like a giant unruly pigeon?"

Her wrists were tied behind her back with force resistant restraints. She would find an immediate escape difficult. In any event, he didn't shoot her. Yet. He did, however, knock her out again by whacking her on the head with the bump stock on his gun. "You run your mouth a little too much for someone in no position to fight back." He told the unconscious Mechi.

Meanwhile, Lux was getting Nona and Aramis ready to go follow her with a few battle droids under his command. "I definitely think we've waited for an update quite long enough. Don't you? We'd best see who's over there." He told them. Lillia gave Aramis a kiss on the cheek for good fortune as he got ready to go.

Nona was ready to go but also rather nervous. Mechi always went off on her own but she at least stayed in contact in some way. This situation had her feeling uneasy. "Master... I know this would be back tracking but is there ever an appropriate time to use the Dark Side...?"

Aramis shook his head. "A Jedi uses the force for knowledge and for defense. Never for attack." Lux walked outside and got a speeder ready for all of them to hop into while the droids went in individual ones. She nodded but kept her frown, following Lux's lead to board the speeder. Maybe breaking a bad habit wasn't as easy as Nona thought.

Meanwhile, Mechi was waking up with a very bad headache and a massive bruise. "We gotta be prepared should more of her show up!" Louis told his goons and henchmen. Then they started to unload some robotic birds with blasters and rocket launchers from the same ship they came on. Those birds quickly started to make their way onto the walls while some of the goons manned the towers and set up some turrets. IT made for a thin but workable defense. "If it's a fight our company wants, they'll get a full scale battle. Quack!"

Mechi was working on trying to get away, but not having much success. "Oi. You idiots wanna maybe let me go so you're not shot down by a warlord?!"

"Wait." Louis paused. "You mean to tell me... Warlord Bonteri's here?" He suddenly got a look in his eyes that said he was thinking of a new plan.

Mechi laughed, throwing her head back. "Bonteri?! What's that? Some kinda adventure novel hero? That's not a real person. I guess what they say is true about bird brains."

"Is that so? Quack! I know he's real. He's the Galactic Empire's most wanted. Now my babies are gonna stall him here while I go rat him out to the empire, collect the bounty, and retire on it." He was still smiling. He gave his men another order. "Change of plans, boys. We're leaving. Pack it up." So they began packing. It would take a while to get everything loaded again though.

"Note to self." Mechi said very loudly "Ask Lux why all his enemies are kriffing morons. You idiots really think someone who's on the most wanted will be just so easy to take in? The empire has tried and failed horribly. How on earth would a flock of pigeons take him down? Honestly. Pathetic."

Louis then looked at her neck. "That's a pretty little necklace you have on. It'd be a real shame if I were to take it off." It was as if he knew that taking off her necklace and destroying it would cause her to die… permanently. People had killed her before but she kept coming back. The necklace was her secret. The more she talked, the worse things seemed to become for her.

Mechi's trademark pout crossed her face before she muttered a quiet and very grumpy "Fine."

Meanwhile, Nona did her best to calm herself as they advanced on the once abandoned castle. She drew from the light side though the dark side kept up its relentless call to her.

Lux hid the land speeder behind a cover spot and looked through his binoculars to see how well the castle up ahead was guarded. "It looks like there's a bird faced droid guarding every ten feet of wall here. Each armed with a blaster and a rocket launcher." Lux thought to send his droids in on their hover speeders to pick off some of them he commed the order to his own units.

Aramis knew a trick or two that Yoda had taught him. "Nona, you know how to deflect blaster fire. Right? I'm about to teach you how to defend against rocket launchers."

Nona nodded along while her master spoke. "When I was still under Ira we were getting to that... he had Tristan stand at the end of a hall and shoot at us. So this'll be easy!" She looked determined. Meanwhile, the battle droids engaged the criminal's droids in combat while some of the beaked ones fired down at Aramis and Nona with their blasters. Aramis would deflect their fire while Lux fired at them from his cover spot. One of the bird faced droids shot a rocket at Aramis. He instructed Nona to keep deflecting the blaster fire while watching him do what he had to. He waited until the rocket was almost to him, then held out his hand to stop it, redirect it, and throw it at the castle walls with the force... making an entrance for them to get through once enough of the defending droids were clear. They seemed to be uniting to defend that section of the wall only. Nona kept up with the blaster fire reasonably well, until of course the rocket was fire. She watched in wonder at her master's work. How calm and powerful he seemed...she was excited to try. One of the last of the enemy units repeated the same stunt on Nona. It fired a rocket at her... giving her the chance to try. The lavender skinned padawan was almost too excited to fire it back...in that she stood up and almost misfired. The rocket did however find its correct target in the remaining wall. She shouted a celebratory "WOOOOO!" Even though she wasn't sure if it had did anything.

Lux and Aramis began to go inside the huge and now unguarded opening. Louis was alerted that they were coming by one of his goons. "Boss! We're all gonna die! They're coming!"

"Quack! You stand and fight you cowardly chickens!" He aimed his machine gun at the lot of his men. "If you don't die fighting him, you'll die refusing. Got it?!" They all pulled out their guns and got ready for battle. "That's what I thought. Quack!"

Nona kept pace, her saber drawn and excitement etched on her face. She was ready for a real fight. "Master! Let me run in first! I'm ready to end this!"

The little red head who started this mess decided now was a good time to practice her obnoxiousness. "HEY LUUUUUUUUX!"

Lux and his Jedi friends soon got to where Louis and his thugs were. The goons began to open fire on the Jedi. "Keep the Jedi pigs distracted. I'll take care of Bonteri!" Louis shouted. As the men began firing upon the Jedi, Louis aimed his machine gun at Lux's heart. Lux noticed where the bird man's attention was. Nona wasn't having any of that. She shouted a very loud apology at the her master before lashing out with horrid force lighting at the lead bird man Louis. Lux had given her a home and friends and a better life, this nasty thug wasn't taking him from her. Mechi cheered from the side lines. "Gahhhh!" Louis was blasted backwards by the lightning and into pile of bricks. This knocked him out. The goons and henchmen continued to fire on Aramis but he deflected their fire and cut them up as they tried to take him down. He pushed some away with the force, but not with lightning, showing Nona how he felt it should have been handled.

Lux gunned down a few of them... and soon they were all dead or knocked out. "That'll make sure we have no criminals living side by side with us in the same system." He smiled a little then he turned to Mechi to cut her loose.

The little red head smiled back "Hiya! I can't believe bird people are a thing, that's so weird! Also like...I'm sorry or whatever. But like also not cuz you got him and he won't live here anymore. So really... you're welcome?"

Nona stood in the center of the courtyard, staring at her hands and breathing heavily. She had won, she had saved her friends but it was all wrong as well as a step back in her progress. She wouldn't look at Aramis. "Thanks for checking it out first." Lux gave Mechi a one arm hug then began to do one more thing to secure the area. Aramis looked at his padawan and said nothing. Just calmly put a hand on her shoulder. They were definitely going to have a private conversation a little later though. Not to chew her out. But rather to tell her what she could have done better so that next time, she might not end up going as far as she did again.

Louis began to wake up. "Ooohhh. Ohhhh."

That's when he was promptly pinned to the ground and clamped in some of his own restraints. "Gotcha." Lux said. "Off to jail with you." He shot Mechi a wink and said, "I'll look up what sort of Bounty is on him... and, rich as I am, I'll pay you, Aramis, and Nona for the group effort. How does that sound?"

A cruel smile slid over Mechi's mouth, it was very clear where Hiroka got her nasty looks from. "Hey, Luxie... Let's put him in a bird cage." Her eyes were wild and wide. Over in the center of the room, Nona was still steadily looking at the ground. She didn't know what to say or even if she should say anything. Her mind was going a mile a minute.

"I like your thinking." Lux said. "Now, move it along you fiend." Louis and his surviving cronies were transported to prison cells at Lux's rebel base. Louis was surprisingly not put in a cage. But rather, frozen in carbonite for safety's sake.

THE END.


End file.
